Kenya scraps e-registration

Kenya has reverted to manual voter registration after cancelling a biometric registration plan.

Kenya’s Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) had planned to acquire biometric voter registration technology said this week it had scrapped plans to use biometric technology to register voters for the next election, to be held in March 2013.

The registration process will start next month.

It had been hoped that biometric voter identification would help the country avoid the fraud allegations that marred the last election.

However, delays in awarding the tender for supply of the Biometric Voter Registration kits for 1450 assembly wards resulted in the IEBC terminating the plan.

The Commission said in a statement: “The Commission wishes to make it known to Kenyans that we have terminated the process of acquiring the Biometric Voter Registration (BVR) kits. All the tenderers have been so notified. This tender has attracted considerable public attention.

We wish to assure the public that all the key stages in the procurement process were guided by the Commission’s core values of respect for the Rule of Law, commitment to transparency and accountability.

In terminating this process the Commission acknowledges that this will be a setback to the expectations of our commitment to automate the voter registration process. The Commission is committed to its corporate values and takes its promises to the Kenyan people very seriously.”